Combined tail light and number-plate box



April 15, 1924 v M. FUCCI COMBINED TAIL LIGHT AND NUMBER PLATE BOX Filed Aug. 29. 1923 J6 aJJ/minv Face 12; 4 9+ WWW A TTORNEY- Apr. 15, 192

Patents if if T Q tra t MASSIMINO FUCCI, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

COMBINED TAIL LIGHT AND NUMBER-PLATE BOX.

Application filed August 29, 1923. Serial H0. 659,967.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MASSIMINO FUooI, a subject of the King of Italy, and resident of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Combined Tail Lights and Number-Plate Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a casing or box of the type adapted to house a lamp at the rear of a wall of said casing or box constructed to serve, when said lamp is lighted, as a combined tail light and illuminated number plate.

An object of the invention is to provide a novel, simple and inexpensive box of the present character, the lid or cover of which, assisted by light from a lamp in the box, can serve as a tail light and illuminated number plate, and the remainder of which will consist of two pieces of metal and a few rivets, one of said metal pieces being a blank shaped to constitute the body of the box, and the other of said pieces being a reinforc ing band extending about and associated with said body in unique manner.

A further object is to equip the casing or box with a slotted metal strap, integral with the metal of said body, for easily and conveniently securing the improved device in proper position at the rear of an automotive vehicle.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention comprises the construction, ar-

rangement and combination of parts as now to be fully described and as hereinafter to be specifically claimed, it being understood that the disclosure herein is merely illustrative, slight changes in details of construction and arrangement of parts being permissible so long as within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the novel device, the lid or cover being shown in open position;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken on line 2-2 in Fig. 1, the casing lid or cover and its hinges being not shown;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken on line 33 in Fig. 1; and I Fig. 4 is a plan view, on a reduced scale, of a blank of metal for constructing the body of the casing or box.

l/Vith respect to the drawing and the numerals of reference indicated thereon, 10 is a blank of metal for constructing the body of the casing, 11 denoting the portion of the metal adapted to constitute the base or bottom, 12 and 18 the port-ions adapted to constitute the side walls, and 14 and 15 the portions adapted to constitute the end walls of said body. To provide said base and said side and end walls, the metal of the blank may be bent upwardly at right-angles along the dotted lines a, Fig. 4, together comprising a rectangle, so that adjacent edges of said side and end walls closely meet, and flaps 16 at the extremities of said end walls may afterwards be given a right-angle bend along the dotted lines I), Fig. 4, to be contiguous with the side walls 12 and 13, respectively. As shown, the flaps 16 engage the inner faces of the side walls (see Fig. 1), but clearly, they could just as well be con tiguous with the outer faces of said side walls. Or certain of the flaps could be associated with the side walls to engage the 611;? walls, should this be considered prefera e.

Numeral 17 denotes a strip of metal, preferably of some considerable thickness and of width equal to appximately one-half the depth of the casing body, adapted to completely surround the upper portion of said body to be contiguous with the side walls 12 and 13 and the end walls 14 and 15 to serve as a reinforcing band insuring the fixed relation of the side and end walls to each other. The ends of the strip 17 can terminate, desirably closely adjacent each other, at one corner of the casing, in which event the strip would have three right-angle bends, or said strip can have four right angle bends, with ends terminating at some location not a corner, as will be understood.

The application of the reinforcing band to the side and end walls of the casing body is the next step in its construction. The band can be shaped directly to said walls, or it can be formed and afterwards slipped onto the partially constructed body. In either event, it is placed and held so that its edge opposite the base 11 of the casing body is arranged approximately at the location indicated by the dotted lines 0, Fig. 4, denoting the limits of said side and end walls, and consequently, indicating the upper edge of the finished casing body, while metal strips, denoted 18, of said blank, immediately beyond said dotted lines 0, are bent along said lines 0 over one edge as at 19, down against the outer face, as at 20, and under the opposite edge, as at 21, of said reinforcing band, as shown more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, to provide housings, denoted 22, locking the band to each side and end wall of the casing body.

Three of the metal strips 18 are shown as terminating adjacent the location 21, while thefourth, the upper one in Figs. 1 and 3, merges at said location into a strap holder 23 lying against and secured to the side wall 12 as by means of rivets 24. Numeral 25 denotes a metal strap with slots 26 for securing the device in proper position at the rear of an automotive vehicle. As disclosed, the strap is approximately in alignment with the base 11 of the casing body, it being a continuation of the strap holder 23, the dotted line (Z on the blank of Fig. 4 denoting the location of the right-angle bend 27 between said holder and strap. Evidently, the integral strap could be associated with the casing body in some other suitable manner. I

Numeral 28 represents a wire having a lamp socket 29 situated in the base 11 of the casing body, and 30 represents a light bulb screwed into the socket and located in the box. 31 is a lid or cover for the box which. may be hinged thereto as at 32, 33 indicating, generally, a detachable fastener for the lid or cover. This lid or cover is adapted to serve, with the aid of light from the lamp 30, as a combined tail light and illuminated number plate, and may be of any suitable construction to this end. Usually, there is a colored disc, denoted 34E, ordinarily red, directly above the lamp, and number and neeoneo character perforations, denoted 35, customarily above a glass closing plate (not shown) carried by the lid or cover.

Attention is invited to the fact that the casing can be used indefinitely, the only change necessary from year to year, or when a different number plate is required, being the removal of the old lid or cover and the substitution of a new one. Obviously, the number and character perforations 35 of the number plate will be discernible by day.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A device of the character described, comprising a casing having a lamp therein and consisting of a single piece of metal shaped to constitute the body of said casin a metal hanging strap integral with said body, a reinforcing band about said body, and a removable cover independent of said reinforcing band upon said body adapted to constitute, aided by light from said lamp, a tail light and illuminated number plate.

2. A tail light and number plate boX, comprising a body having a lamp therein and consisting of a single piece of metal including a base, side and end walls, and locking strips, a reinforcing strip about the upper edges of said walls and beneath said locking strips, the locking strips serving to lock the reinforcing strips to the walls, and a removable cover independent of said reinforcing strip upon said body and adapted to constitute, aided by light from said lamp, a tail light and illuminated number plate.

Signed at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, this 24th day of August, A. D. 1923.

MASSIMINO FUCCI. 

